Review #161: Crash - Mind over Mutant

 The worst Crash game so far, and the last one too!

 People give the post-Naughty Dog Crash games a lot of flak, but I tried them out, I played them and I can safely say that they are decent games, some even really good. Crash of the Titans was among the really good ones, the redesigns and new gameplay mechanics may have not sat well with everyone, but it was undeniably good. Mind over Mutant takes everything bad about Crash of the Titans and takes everything that was really good... and breaks it.

 Does story really matter in these games? Eh, might as well just go for it. N. Cortex is up to no good, again, and this time teams up with N. Brio to take over Crash's friends and finally destroy Crash. On the upside, the game has a good amount of cut-scenes, and they are all done with different animated styles, some ape South Park, some parody anime and their spikey hairs, among others. It was a good idea, except that the game isn't as funny as Crash of the Titans, it does have some funny jokes, but not as many as CotT. The supporting cast, such as N. Gin, Ninca Cortex, Coco and Crunch have much less screen time than before, probably having to do with the fact that the game goes by very fast.

 The game builds up from the last game, most of Crash's moves remain the same, except that he lost the Aku Aku Slide, has the Spin attack from the start and has a new Spin Jump, which is a glorified high jump and you just need to use it to reach high platforms, but never in a "challenging" way, so it's not as fun as it sounds. As with the last game, you can collect Mojo from broken object or fallen enemies, and every time you collect a certain a mount of Mojo, Crash levels up and gets some kind of buff. Titans are back, kinda, they are called Mutants now. Mutants are now a bigger part of the game than before, which I found pretty lame. On paper it sounds like a good idea, having more puzzles that require a Mutant, thing is, most Mutants aren't very fun to control, and even the decent ones aren't as fun to use as Crash. Since Mutants now play a bigger part in the game, you can now store one with you, by pressing R2, and level them up by collecting Mojo while riding one of them. Co-op is back, the second player being relegated to Carbon Crash(or Coco if you are playing on a 360, it's hilarious since Coco appears on the PS2 opening as the second player!).

 Another change I really disliked, is that the game now tries a "open-world" approach, quite like Twinsanity, but not as well. Twinsanity pulled it off relatively well, but here it has one major flaw: Backtracking. You'll go through places, back and forth, by the same exact route, many, many times. Near the end of the game you unlock warps to the four major areas in the game, but it takes you to designated places and you'll still need to walk. A lot. As "open" as the new world is, it's still a very linear game, you can't go to new places until the game opens them up for you, and instead of playing through chapters, the game is made up of 23 story mode missions and 50 missions. The 23 story missions go by in a flash, I was done with the game in less than four hours. Sure, you have the extra 50 missions, but most amount to little more than fat. If you want 100%, you are gonna have to defeat 75 of every common enemy, jack about 5 of each mutant, level up each mutant(Including the rare "hero" variations) to 5(takes a LONG time), level up Crash(Takes even longer), kill enemies in co-op(Yes, you need a second player to 100% the game). It feels as if 80% of the game is fat, retreading old ground over and over again, playing as the clunky Mutants and fulfilling tedious sidequests. It simply isn't much fun. Oh, and the fixed camera can get annoying.

 The game looks relatively good, but it feels as if it played it safe. There's another Forest area, another snow area, another Wasteland area and a new mountain(CotT's mountain wasn't dark like this one) area. By themselves, levels look pretty decent, but Crash of the Titans did them much, much better. Character models are fairly decent, even if the variety is rather small(There's what? 12 Mutants and 4-5 small enemy types). The soundtrack has widely different tracks, some are excellent, while others are just forgettable. Voice acting is phenomenal, even if the lines aren't gold, and I have to mention it... whenever you are close to a collectible, this annoying beep will start to ring, if you can't find the collectible, or reach it, you are gonna have a very annoying time as that vexing beep makes your ears bleed.

 What makes Mind over Mutant so disappointing is just how much Crash of the Titans got right. It wasn't perfect by any means, and it wasn't close to the bar set by Naughty Dog, but it was on the right track. And then came Mind over Mutant and spit all over Crash of the Titans. No bueno.
 4.0 out of 10.